There will be no victory, no peace, without reform

As we pass our nation’s 241st birthday, the incessant war in the Middle East almost fades to background noise. Even as we commit more troops and ask NATO allies to step up their contributions, most Americans react to news of an impasse with a resurgent Taliban with nary an eye blink.

After 16 years of war, the term “resurgent” is proof that what we’ve been doing isn’t working. Yet here we go again, back into conventional battle, ignoring voices that profess a different solution.

Islam doesn’t translate to “peace” but to “submission,” according to Muhammad Syed, president of Ex-Muslims of North America. He advises Muslims to consider the same path that he took: critically examine the teachings of Islam, which will lead to enlightenment, which will lead to abandonment of the mythology (his words).

Referring to Daesh, the Muslim term for the Islamic State, King Abdullah of Jordan says, “This is a fight inside Islam where everybody comes together against these outlaws.”

“It’s a cultural war that has to be waged by Muslims,” says journalist Fareed Zakaria. “Fighting an ideological war against the Islamic State actually points towards… military restraint and close political cooperation with Arabs.”

At the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, senior fellow Shmuel Bar writes about the dilemma moderate Islamists face: Jihad is allowed, and in some interpretations is considered a duty. Those who would condemn that which is allowed risk being accused of apostasy — and apostates must be killed.

Yet the key to reforming Islam lies within Islam. For example, those who use the Quran to justify murder are themselves condemned. Just as radicals use old passages that demand violent action, the alternative narrative of new Islam must emphasize passages that condemn violence and promote peace.

The clock runs fast in the nuclear age, making action imperative — even more so against an enemy that avows destruction of Western civilization. Yet killing Islamic extremists should become far less a priority than protecting moderate Muslims who can and will promote reform within Islam.

Ijtihad, or reasoned examination of the Quran and hadiths — those teachings that make up Sharia law — was freely practiced by Muslim scholars for centuries. Moderate Muslims must be enlisted — pressured — to insist that ijtihad be resumed by the clergy with an imperative that radical teachings be relegated to their rightful place: historic reference only.

Radicals must be isolated, their ability to operate with impunity revoked by Muslim leadership. The truth of a new hadith — that violent jihad is history and has no place in modern Islam — must be spread by all means available: video, print, social media, in the mosques and on the streets. For the courageous, protection is key.

Meanwhile, just as the repressive Nazi regime was ostracized by law, so now must the West amend civil rights provisions that provide dangerous religious ideology safe haven. Terrorism from Islamic extremists will be eliminated only when it can no longer hide behind contorted versions of Western or Sharia law.